The First Time You Felt The Wind
by Shadow Star.EXE
Summary: Oneshot CRACK. A chance meeting with the wrong Princess of Heart gives Xaldin a sense of peace in his empty nonlife. Entry to Ellie0223's To Be Your Princess challenge. XaldinxAurora.


_**The First Time You Felt The Wind**_

_CRACK XaldinxAurora entry for ellie0223's challenge __**To Be Your Princess**_

_**&-&-&-&**_

_The first time he meets her, it's completely by accident._

He took a wrong turn, innocently enough but still wasted enough time on his way to the Beast's Castle. Instead of meeting a young brunette, he met a young blond haired village girl. He found her singing to be beautiful, something that filled his emptiness and nothingness.

Never once did she turn his way. The wind only blew slightly.

_The second time he meets her, it's to see if she could be put to use._

Xemnas had heard from his second in command that the princesses of heart were possibly vital for Kingdom Hearts. "Imagine how powerful Kingdom Hearts would become if the hearts of the princesses were offered," were Saix's words. Xaldin felt a chill when he realized his wrong turn had led him to one such princess. Should her heart be sacrificed, he couldn't hear her singing anymore.

Xemnas had assigned him to meet the singing princess. Oh irony, you can be so cruel.

His mission: to keep an eye on her and prepare to take her heart.

Still, he found her to be incredibly distracting.

He finally hears her name: _Rose. _So beautiful and simple...

As he fulfills half his mission, he still cannot bring himself to take her heart.

_"Perhaps tomorrow, I will be able to do it."_

The wind ruffled the leaves in the forest she lived in.

_The third time he meets her, she speaks of her dreams._

"Auntie...may I go out into the woods after chores?"

"Yes, Rose, just be careful! Do not wander too far."

Xaldin sees his opportunity. She is not singing. She is dressed in tattered work clothes. Her hair is tied in a ponytail. She will be alone.

So why is it still hard?

Xaldin figured he was just lazy.

Still, it had to be a mistake. She wasn't a princess. It made no sense at all.

But...Xaldin reminded himself that not all the princesses were royal. That red haired prisoner wasn't. Neither was the little girl from Wonderland.

Conflict was an awful thing.

While the Lancer was brooding over the facts, the girl happily sang and danced among the animals in the forest. When she stopped her singing, a lance was raised and ready to strike.

"Ah, how I love it out here...my friends...the forest...but I still wish that there was much more to life then this."

Damnit, her voice was distracting him again.

"I wish that I could be around more people...but my aunties say I can't. I want to dance with others, meet a nice man...and simply find love...is it asking for too much? My aunties never let me go anywhere near other people..."

Xaldin gritted his teeth. Great. Now she was acting _cute._

There was no way he could take her heart now.

The wind blew harder, making her hair flow out.

_The fourth time he meets her, he makes his intentions known._

As a scientist, Xaldin likes to ask questions. He likes to research and experiment. When something catches his interest, he focuses on it.

His curiosity had been piqued this time. Since he was in charge of taking the heart of Rose, he could do research using her on his time.

So this time, he makes himself known to her. Oddly enough, she is not scared away by his presence. Instead, she's warm and welcoming, hungry for the company of another human being. Even if this human being is a Nobody.

"I'm actually quite glad..." Rose sat on a tree stump and smiled innocently at Xaldin. "I haven't seen another human...practically my whole life. My aunts keep me sheltered from others here in this forest. I had given up ever seeing someone and thought I would just stay stuck befriending animals forever."

"It must be rather...hard...to live in the shadows..." Xaldin pretended to sympathize with the blond girl. "Actually, I'm glad I found you. I have some questions to ask."

Rose looked troubled. "Uhm..."

"Don't worry, they aren't personal," Xaldin reassured her. "You see...I'm a scientist and I'm studying the nature of the heart. Someone as carefree as yourself would be able to help me understand things. If it's okay, would you mind singing for me? I think your singing might have an influence on the hearts of the animals, since whenever I walk through here, I never see any of them. And your voice sounds quite similar to the melody I keep hearing as well."

The Whirlwind Lancer had to congratulate himself on sweet talking the girl into thinking everything was alright. Rose blushed, evidently embarrassed, before nodding.

"I would be glad to help you. Would you show me the results of your study later? It sounds interesting."

"Certainly," Xaldin lied. Rose smiled even wider and opened her mouth to sing.

_A siren from the deep came to me_

_Sang my name my longing_

_Still I write my songs about that dream of mine_

_Worth everything I may ever be_

_The Child will be born again_

_That siren carried him to me_

_First of them true loves_

_Singing on the shoulders of an angel_

_Without care for love n` loss_

Xaldin shuddered. Damnit, it was beautiful.

He was so caught up in the singing, he had failed to notice the animals crowding around. Some of the wild deer were eying him distastefully and without trust. This was their forest and Xaldin was intruding. The birds hovered around Rose, almost as if to protect her.

The Whirlwind Lancer sighed. There was something about Rose's singing that just completed him. Maybe it was her voice or her song...or just her overall. He hated having to leave so soon, but if he didn't make his report to Xemnas soon, they would come looking for him and that would mess everything up disastrously.

"Thank you, Rose...oh look, we seem to have company..." Xaldin finally noticed the number of wildlife. Rose smiled happily and stroked the head of a buck.

"They always come when I sing...so anytime I feel lonely, I call them over with my voice. But maybe I won't have to anymore...will you come visit me again?"

"Yes, I definitely will," Xaldin nodded. He got up from his seating place and walked away from the girl and the wildlife.

"Wait! I never got your name!"

"It is Dilan," Xaldin lied. Once he was far from eyesight, he opened a portal of darkness and teleported away.

The wind swirled around Rose's body, making her sigh.

_The fifth time he meets her, he's still attached to her but his colleagues do not approve._

"You've been coming to this place too much, Xaldin," Xigbar snarled at his cohort. His single eye looked from Xaldin to Rose in a disapproving way. "Superior is miffed over why you haven't taken the girl's heart yet."

Rose was terrified, but Xaldin brandished a lance to stand up to the Freeshooter. "There hasn't been a reason to," he said, thickly. "She hasn't shown any signs of being one of the princesses. She's a normal common girl in the woods."

"So was that redhead on the island," Xigbar snarled. He aimed his gun at Rose and Xaldin growled like a beast. His lance knocked the gun out of Xigbar's hand and another was pointed at his face.

"Leave right now, Xigbar. I will explain myself to the superior. You do not have to get involved in this."

"As if!" Xigbar rolled his eyes. He opened a portal of darkness and vanished without another word.

Rose was stunned. The man who had shown her such kindness had protected her from a terrible fate, but...the words of the other man with the eyepatch and scar startled her. This man...the one she had trusted...had lied to her. Now his eyes, so blue and cold, turned back to her and she felt nothing but anger.

"You lied to me..."

"It was necessary," Xaldin replied in a thick voice. "Would you have believed I was a Nobody with no heart? Would you have answered me if I told the truth?"

"So you were just using me," Rose said. She stood up and turned heel, but was stopped by Xaldin's hand on her shoulder.

"But I didn't kill you. I disobeyed orders and let you live. And I intend to allow you to live as well. In a way I cannot explain, you have brought some peace into my nothingness. To kill you now would be to lose that peace."

Rose looked back at Xaldin. His blue eyes appeared softer and her heartbeat quickened.

"I cannot lose that peace. I cannot lose you."

For a while, Rose heard nothing, but the wind ruffling the trees and the beating of her own heart. Unknowingly, she brought a hand up to touch Xaldin's own chest and was less than shocked to realize that he was right. There was no heart beating within. Never in her whole life had she realized someone could exist without a heart.

She voiced this. He sternly said, "I don't truly exist."

"You're right here, aren't you?" Rose said. And that was all she needed to say, for her next action was kissing him. Xaldin, at first, couldn't believe what this was. A memory from his life as a Somebody reminded him what a kiss was and what it meant and he kissed her right back.

The wind blew flower petals around them and made their hair sweep the air around them.

_There is no sixth meeting._

Rose had finally found her true heritage, as the princess Aurora and was to be married to a prince some time later. Although she went into the marriage unwillingly, she grew to love her husband and her new life as a queen. She was blessed with beautiful children and a pleasent life, but the memory of the man in the woods never left her mind. It was thanks to him that, today, she lived and had a wonderful life around her.

She lived, hoping he had found his heart and was living a good life too.

The sad truth was he never did.

_**&-&-&-&**_

**Holy Keyblades, I never thought I'd finish this.**

**I kept going "YUCK" every time I looked at this and I thought, "I should sooooo scrap this piece of crap," but I just kept going. I figured I could redeem it. And now that it's done, looking at it now...it doesn't really seem that stupid.**

**Those lyrics used were from Nightwish's Ghost Love Score. I love that song so much.**

**Anywho...this is my challenge entry for Ellie0223's challenge "To Be Your Princess." I had started it a LONG time ago...and I just finished it today. I don't know if the challenge is still going on or not, but I didn't want to let my work go to waste. So challenge or not, here you go.**

**Review and tell me how I did. CC is LOVED, flames are snarled at and blocked.**

**-Moonlit Assassin**


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